Dreams Don't Die
by hollybug26
Summary: When Puck finds out that Rachel is not going to New York after graduation, he takes things into his own hands.


Puck sat in his truck which was parked on the corner of the street as he watched the lights in the house in the middle of the street. All the plans of the past two months came down to this, and he was fucking nervous. Kurt and Santana were positive that the plan would work, and were in fact hiding in the bushes in order to witness the entire thing, but while Santana had a camera with her in order to make some money of this one day by selling the pictures to TMZ, Puck was positive it wouldn't work. This time tomorrow he'd be at some graduation party drunk off his ass in order to drown out the memory of tonight, listening to Kurt crying on one side of him and Santana bitching in bad Spanish on the other. Hell when he thought about it that way this plan had better fucking work. Puck looked over at the house again, and since the signal hadn't been given he quickly glanced over at the bushes were he could slightly make out Kurt and Santana before he opened his truck door and closed it as quietly as he could.

He fucking hated waiting, and just to keep busy he rechecked the bed of his truck to make sure his duffle bag and guitar case were still there, which they were just like the other ten times he had gotten out of his truck to check. Puck glanced over at the house again, but the signal still hadn't come and he cursed under his breath as he kicked one of his tires. Opening the truck door he slid back inside and rested his head on the steering wheel trying to decide whose fault it was that he was sitting on a street corner waiting for a certain light to be turned off when he could be off drinking to the fact that he was actually going to graduate tomorrow. He'd worked his ass off this year, even taking night classes at the junior college in order to bring up his GPA enough so he could get that stupid piece of paper that would get him out of this shithole.

Looking up again from the steering wheel Puck let muttered that it was about fucking time when he saw the light turn off in the house. He jumped out of his truck, slamming the door behind him as he practically ran down the street, acknowledging Kurt and Santana when he passed them who were giving him an encouraging shout. Fuck, did Santana really just say he'd cut off his cajones if he failed? That bitch would do it to; he's seen the razors she keeps in her hair. Puck reached the tree and began to climb until he was on the branch that was right in front of her window. He knocked quickly with one hand as he held onto the branch with the other and waited. When nothing happened he knocked louder and let out a sigh of relief when the lamp on her nightstand flipped on.

"Noah?" Rachel asked as she opened her causing Puck to smile. "What are you doing here?"

"Hoping you'll let me in before this branch fucking breaks," Puck replied causing Rachel to shake her head but step away from the window.

Puck half jumped, half climbed inside and smirked at Rachel before he closed the window behind him.

"Are you drunk?" Rachel inquired and Puck shook his head smiling.

"Were do you keep your suitcases?" Puck ordered instead, causing Rachel to give him a confused look as she pointed out into the hallway.

"The closet next to the bathroom," Rachel informed him, "Why?"

Puck ignored her; instead he slipped into the hallway and found the closest she was talking about after opening three separate doors. He looked over the suitcases before pulling out the two biggest ones and closing the door behind him. Rachel was still standing in the middle of her bedroom when Puck returned and tossed both the suitcases on her bed and opened them up.

"You better get dressed," Puck told her and he went into her closest and grabbed a handful of clothes, then went back into the bedroom and tossed them into one of the suitcases.

"Noah!" Rachel hissed, "What do you think you're doing?"

Puck went back into the closest and returned with another handful of clothes, tossing them into the same suitcase as he grunted, "Packing, what does it fucking look like?"

"Why are you packing my clothes in the middle of the night?" Rachel hissed again as Puck opened one of her dresser drawers and began tossing its contents into the suitcase.

"You'll need clothes once you get to New York," Puck responded as he opened another drawer, "Unless you wanna go naked, which I wouldn't complain about."

He could see Rachel rub her face before stepping in front of him with her hands on her hips, "I don't know what you think you are doing Noah, but I'm not going to New York. We've been through this, I'm going to Ohio State where it will be more affordable to earn my degree, and then once I graduate I will go to New York and pursue my Broadway career. It makes sense to have a degree to fall back on just in case I don't make it on Broadway."

"And I think that's the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard," Puck retorted as he continued to empty her drawers and filling both suitcases in the process, "Rachel, we both know this is coming from Finn who had somehow convinced you that you're gonna need some bullshit degree as a backup plan. Fuck, do you want to know what your life is going to be like if you go to Ohio State?"

Puck paused in his packing as he stood in front of Rachel. She didn't look up at him; instead she was concentrating on the suitcases on her bed. When she didn't respond Puck continued, "You'll end right back here in Lima, raising Finn's Gentile kids as you read up on Easter and Christmas and whatever other fucking Gentile holidays there are while your Jewish traditions that have been around hundreds of years longer than those stupid ones are forgotten. You'll be driving kids to dance classes and football practice while Finn is cheating on you with his secretary."

Rachel was still refusing to look at Puck, and he had to admit this wasn't going quite how things were supposed to. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and he knew it was either Santana or Kurt wanting to know what was taking too long but he ignored it. Instead, Puck reached out and softly cupped Rachel's cheek, forcing her to finally look at him.

"Rachel, if you give in with this and go to Ohio State you'll never make it to New York and we both know that. If you go to Ohio State you'll always be the one to give but never get anything back," Puck continued softly as he wiped at a tear that had rolled down Rachel's cheek, "You don't need a fucking back up plan Rach, you're fucking talented and anyone who says otherwise is just jealous. I know you're going to get a lead role and one day you'll get your Tony! Come to New York Rachel, otherwise you'll be sitting at the PTA meetings like all these other Lima Losers talking about how you almost went to New York to star on Broadway."

Puck stared at Rachel, he knew she was considering it, especially when she looked up at him and asked softly, "Do I have to decide tonight? We have graduation tomorrow Noah, I need time to think about this. I promise, after graduation we can sit down and have a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of me going to New York…"

Puck shook his head however and cut Rachel off as he lifted her chin and smirked at her, "I'm not going to graduation Rachel. I'm going to New York, tonight, and you can either go with me and make all your dreams come true or you can stick around this shithole town for the rest of your life. Think about it Rach, when Jewfro writes the first unauthorized biography of you, think about how badass it will be running away from home the night before graduation in order to kick fucking ass on Broadway. You don't need to think about this Rachel, you've been thinking about New York forever. I'm just offering you a ride to get there, and protection in the hostels until you can get a place."

Rachel looked over at her bed and Puck waited and when it had seemed like fucking forever had passed Rachel grinned at him, "This is crazy Noah, it's too late. I already declined NYU's offer to attend school in the fall and I…."

Puck reached in his back pocket and pulled out the folded sheets of paper that was his last argument and handed them to Rachel grinning, "Your Daddy went in the mailbox and stole the form declining your NYU acceptance. He then gave me all the paper work you needed to accept and for dorms and Santana, who can forge anyone's handwriting if she's seen it only once, filled out all your paperwork and sent it in. You and Santana are rooming together, something about she'd rather live with crazy she was used to then crazy she wasn't, and you have to register for classes in August. The only thing keeping you in Ohio is you Rach, all you have to do is help me zip up these fucking bags, toss them out your window and write a note to your Dads saying you ran away with me to New York."

"I can't just leave my Dad's a letter," Rachel mumbled as she carefully looked over the papers in shock.

"Sure you can, just keep it fucking short and simple," Puck responded as he shrugged his shoulders, "That's what I did for my Ma."

"Noah!" Rachel exclaimed, "What did you say?"

"Ma, running away with Rachel Berry to New York. Call when I get there, N" Puck recited and ignored Rachel's playful slap, "Seriously Rach, you'll be doing me a huge favor by going. Ma's going to be pissed if she finds out I ran away to New York by myself."

"Ok," Rachel responded softly as she nodded her head before looking up at Puck with a huge smile on her face, "Ok, let's go."

"Fuck yes," Puck exclaimed, "Now write your note while I finish getting this shit packed. We need to hit the road."

Thirty minutes later Rachel had left a note by the coffee pot explaining her decision to leave with Puck, promising to call as soon as she reach New York and had helped Puck carry her bags out the front door since she refused to throw them out of her bedroom window. They were now standing in front of the window, looking at the tree that Puck had used to climb into her window.

"I don't see why we can't just use the front door Noah," Rachel stated as she stared at the tree giving an involuntary shudder.

"When you give interviews which would you rather say, I walked out the front door in the middle of the night to run away to New York," Puck stated, "Or, I climbed out my bedroom window in the middle of the night to run away to New York."

"The window sounds better," Rachel agreed as she continued to stare at the tree.

"Let's do this shit then," Puck responded as he nudged her closer, "Just don't look down."

Puck watched as Rachel took a deep breath before grabbing the window sill and slowly sliding out onto the first branch. He encouraged her along and waited until her feet where on the ground before he swung himself out the window and followed her. He grabbed her hand and they began to run as he led her to where his truck was parked. After climbing in, they drove back to Rachel's house where her bags were waiting on the sidewalk and Puck left the truck running as he hopped out and tossed her bags into the bed with his own shit. When that was finished he climbed back inside, shifted into first and just managed to catch a glimpse of Kurt and Santana celebrating in the rear view mirror before he turned off Rachel's street and headed towards the highway.

They had just left Lima city limits when Puck turned towards Rachel and smiled, "Don't worry Rach, your Dads gave me permission to help you run away tonight. They also gave me the gas money to get us to New York and paid for the first two hostels we are staying in, because apparently there a time limit or some shit on how long you can stay in a shitty hostel."


End file.
